Ventura attracts record bookings
P&O Cruises’ new ship Ventura attracted £27 million-worth of bookings in the first day of going on sale.
The line made 18,800 bookings in the first day of 2008 cruises on the ship going on sale – a record for a single day across the 13 brands in parent company Carnival Corporation.
A third of the 115,000-tonne ship’s capacity for next year was sold in less than a week, with 35% of bookings new to P&O Cruises, revealed head of brand marketing Philip Price.
The launch day bookings were more than triple the previous record of 5,000 taken for the launch of Oceana in 2005.
The average age profile of those booking the new ship, which enters service next April, is 49 against the line’s normal average age of 54.
Ventura’s maiden cruise was sold out in the first morning of going on sale and Price said he believed the levels of newcomers meant that the ship was not cannibalising bookings from others in the fleet.
*See separate P&O Cruises brochure launch story.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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